Zak George

Thanks to Clicker Solutions I checked out videos by Zak George a young dog trainging guy with a programme in the US. He's fuuuuuuuuun and great! Check it out.

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/zak-george-project/
http://blogs.discovery.com/zak_george/

A fantastic Day at Dog Communication Because Mutts Need Manners

Grey and I went to Surrey today to attend a group run by the lovely Laura and Penel Dog Communication. Quite honestly, the bestest activity event that we've ever done. It was brilliant. Grey was a right monkey as usual, but he seemed (well to my untrained eye!) to learn to handle himself better by his second outing in the field with the teaching dogs. Basically, if he went OTT, the teaching dogs stepped in and told him off. The other dogs were amazing and it was a lovely atmosphere. I feel really lucky to have somewhere like that within easy reach of where we live. We're definitely going again. I'm really looking forward to seeing him learn how to handle himself more. Perhaps it will have a knock on effect for other areas. And I think it will help me too. It's a safe controlled environment. No worrying while out on walks.

They think he's been slow to mature. Sounds about right. That's what Helen Phillips said too and another behaviourist we saw. 30KG of puppy.

It was all going great and then not!

Finally reporting back after missing the internet for a month. Grey and the coonie cats were making very good progress at living together. We managed to get Grey not to chase the cats, one cat to not run and at one point, we were all sat on the bed together more or less quiet. Not bad for the first two weeks. The coonies still growl at him and I think cuddles are a long way off yet. But still way way better than I'd feared we going through since moving house.

Grey and I have been practising more road walking on the flat collar. He's done really well. Lunging at vans etc has decreased 90%. Still has the odd one if he's really hyped about being out and for some reason switched on. But the fact that's he's manageable on a flat collar and I can walk him around is really great.

So tempering the good news are two incidents. One is that my other half now has a black eye after Grey bopped upwards while L was leaning over him on the square when we were locked out last week. It was a real smack and ouch. Poor L. Bad dog mum moment number one. Don't let people lean over the dog if you can't trust him to stay with all four paws on the ground.

Incident two is today we went out for a beach walk with two friends and their dogs who we've not seen for months. Grey was a awful. Really rude, rough and OTT with the lovely whippet dog the same age but a little younger than Grey. He had hold of him at one point and that is just not on. Pinning and having a jaws round another dog's neck is really really bad. He did improve by the end of the walk but lordie, it wasn't a good. So lots of work to do there with Mr Grey.

He definitely has a habit of behaving badly when other dogs are on the lead and also now I see if the dog is a bit smaller than him and especially it seems if we all out for a walk together rather than a quick meet and greet and move on. I'd been working of ways getting him not to run in to the other dogs. Having a retrieve trained in would be really handy at this point perhaps, because if I give him a toy at this point he would just parade around with it and then his recall goes to pot. I probably manage him when I'm on my own by playing the 'find it' game of blind retrieves, where he will bring it back to me and also come away from other dogs to do that. But if an object is thrown, he sees it differently and he runs off and parades and can become more of a tease. I hadn't realised that he would be so awful because I've not been doing linear walks with other people alongside. I'm still unsure how to manage those as he pulls so hard and I don't know how to stop and start and recue him back to me if I'm trying to keep up with people. Perhaps this is why I've avoided it as I find it hard to manage a 30kg pulling dog if I don't stop or change direction. I ended up popping him on the dogmatic today which I haven't had out for ages.

Oh Mr Grey. Never simple is it. He's now asleep under the table farting. Lovely.

We're back! Normal radio contact resumes

Well, we're 80% finished with the house move and have opened a new business. Moved the cats into the bedroom, Grey into the open plan diner (help!) and the lounge and guests into our new b&b on the top floors. Picked Grey up from kennels yesterday. It's always so funny to see him after a break as I see him in a new shape everytime I see him like this. His eyes seem greyer, his beard funnier. I dunno.

He's been really good since he came back to the new house. I don't know if it's because I decided in my mind that he would have to be good! It's a lot more open plan than how we've been living in the previous house and sharing with friends and a baby. I managed to introduce him to the cats who he's been separated from and previously had been barking at when he heard them run in another room above. He was brilliant with the cats. Much more interested in their food of the food I had for him or their cat litter (yuck!). But it's all looking hopeful as I'd been quite stressed thinking how it was going to work out now I have a business to run so more doors shut so cats can't run into guest rooms. They're not too in love with Grey yet, but perhaps given time they'll settle. So far no chasing which is great.

Other news is that I tried him on his slip lead today as it was the only one I had to hand after the move. And he was fab on it. Managed to walk him round the old town across the main road and onto the Harbour Arm. Big yay on that one. Perhaps he's been at training school all week and not kennels after all!

Half a heart

Grey is in kennels tonight and tomorrow while we continue to pack our house up and finish preparations to start the b&b next week. He was so pleased to go there today. Never seen him wag so much. Feels lonely without him though.

Recording training sessions for the ipod

I really like this idea that came up via the Clicker Solutions list. Basically, recording training sessions into audio files that can be played on the ipod or similar mp3 player or phone. Great for training where behaviours are broken down into tiny tiny increments or also programmes of densensitization of reactive dogs where you literally move forwards a millimetre at a time. The protocol from Dr. Karen Overall in the link is something I will have a look at for Grey. Mmmm more reading.

Breaking down general handling and grooming

Given the amount of stuff I've had to get off Grey's fur this last few weeks an article by Kathy Sdao jumped out at me while I was looking through her site last week. It's nothing that I shouldn't really ought to have been doing or that other people haven't said to me. But sometimes it takes a prod to remind you to do the more boring things. But actually these things aren't boring, they can literally save you a load of stress for you and your dog. You need to be able to do things when you need to do them.

Kathy's approach comes from training zoo animals to assist in their general everyday care. Given Grey's problems with his teeth and his hairy muzzle that acts like a magnet to spikey sticky buds, it's a good idea to work on these things every day. She recommends leaving out nail clippers etc so that you are reminded to integrate them into your daily training sessions every single day. Jean Donaldson refers to a similar protocol in her excellent book called 'Mine!' on guarding (body, location, food etc).

Grey had become increasingly nervous the last few weeks around his muzzle because of the seed issue. I had a few incidents where I'd tried to take him somewhere where there aren't the bloody things and still he found them. I worked a few days of getting him to look at the nail scissors and work up to him targetting them with his nose. Got him used to the sound of them opening and closing. Eventually he was better around them. In the meantime I stopped pushing on the issue and left him covered in the stuff while they dried up a bit and I could gently comb through.